Wealth Advisor Trust Company - Trustee Fee Schedule

At Wealth Advisors Trust Co., based on South Dakota trust law, we focus on trust administration for personal trusts. We understand the complexities and stress that is involved with selecting a Trustee, (See our blog “How to Choose A Trustee In Four Easy Steps.” ) and have years of industry experience to put you at ease. Our trustee fee schedule is reasonable, natural and easy to understand. We even eat our own cooking as these cobbler's kids have great shoes.

We offer innovative and collaborative trustee services such as Agency Trustee, Administrative Corporate Trustee (Delegated Trusts and Directed Trusts), Special Needs Trusts and Irrevocable Life Insurance Trust services to clients across the country. Our trustee fee schedule and trustee services rest on transparency and efficiency which means no hidden fees and no funny business. Our trustee fee schedule is reasonable. We are not the cheapest nor the most expensive when it comes to our trustee fee schedule but believe our services and fees are based on real value and our customers agree. (Read Testimonials Here)

Before you jump into comparing and studying our trustee fee schedule against our competitors may we make a suggestion. Take the next 90 seconds to read the history of trustee fee schedules so you can have the information and knowledge to make the wisest choice for your situation. The trustee industry generally glosses over the following historical information.

A trustee fee schedule is set at the executive level with input from the Trustee Committee and potentially the Risk Management group and Chief Financial Officer. The Risk Management group would get involved around allocating certain risk factors for specific trust situations. The Chief Financial Officer would balance the overall trustee fee schedule against the bank or trust companies cost of funds for finding a reasonable net profit margin for expenses and revenues. Historically, trustee fees were based on an hourly rate plus a percentage rate multiplied against the trust assets. The fundamental focus on trustee fee schedules was control, risk and time. Trustees are freakishly worried about control and risk. They have the most to lose as the highest fiduciary reasonable for everything. I mean everything. Historically, time was not a huge worry for creating trustee fees as management believed the trustee fees will smooth out any large increase in time allocated to trust administration.

Currently, traditional and independent trust companies trustee fee schedule rests on hourly, fixed fees, termination fees, nickel and diming fees and a percentage rate multiplied against the trust assets. You the customer have no idea exactly how they arrive at those numbers or remember all the rules when those trustee fee schedules apply. Wealth Advisors Trust Co. trustee fee schedule rests on hourly, fixed and percentage of assets. Two years (circa 2017) we asked ourselves how to calculate trustee fee schedules with more precision based on our risk and time only. Control is non-issue. One of our co-founders is a former insurance actuary (e.g. really really smart guy in Math). Collectively, our trustee fee schedule now rests on 7 Factors for Directed Trusts and Delegated Trusts based on risk and time which we share with clients. Now everyone knows how we calculate our trustee fees. We even wrote a blog on how to negotiate lower trustee fees

Below are our trustee fee schedules or you can press the button to start the fee quote process. Talk soon!

 

Directed Trust Fees


A trust in which the grantor/settlor has written into the trust document who the specific financial advisor(s) shall be, whereby the financial retains 100% of the investment fiduciary risk and the corporate trustee retains 0% of the investment fiduciary risk.

Learn More About Our Directed Trust Fees

Delegated Trust Fees


90% of trusts in existence today (2020) follow this type. The corporate trustee delegates the investment authority (e.g buy/sells, custody decisions, re-balancing, investment policy statement, etc.) to an independent financial advisor. 

However, since the corporate trustee makes the decision to delegate the investment authority, the investment fiduciary risk is equally shared by the financial advisor and the corporate trustee.
 

Learn More About Our Delegated Trust Fees

Special Needs Trust Fees


A unique trust required when a beneficiary requires a lifetime of medical care needs where the grantors/settlors will apply for government assistance and also set up a unique trust to provide for additional medical/maintenance needs around very complicated and detailed rules.

Learn More About Our Special Needs Trust Fees

ILIT Trustee Fees


An irrevocable life insurance trust (also known as ILIT) allows for life insurance proceeds to be owned by a trust and to remove the life insurance proceeds from the life insured estate, protecting the assets when the life insured passes away.

Learn More About Our ILIT Trustee Fees

Trust & Estate Settlement Fees


Trust and estate settlement fees can vary depending on the size and complexity of the situation.

Learn More About Trust & Estate Settlement Fees

 

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